Situated in the current context of globalization featuring the importance of technology and English literacies worldwide, this study aims to understand the ways pre-service teachers in the non-English-speaking country of Taiwan use technology and English in their daily lives. The global diffusion of technology and English has made these two tools essential for full social participation in the 21st century. However, the new generation of pre-service teachers, who grew up with new technological development and compulsory English learning in school, may nevertheless lack sufficient abilities to use technology and English for purposes meaningful to them due to the lack of relevant opportunities. From a sociocultural perspective which views human activities inseparable from their surrounding social contexts, this study focuses on what one does with technology and English rather than what digital and English properties that one has as prior research did.

This study employs questionnaire (regarding pre-service teachers’ demographic information, views about technology and English, and self-assessment of digital and English abilities), web logs (recording their daily use of technology and English), and interviews (about their perception about technology and English) to explore the digital and English experience among senior undergraduate students from five teacher education programs in an university in Taiwan. The collected data are analyzed using both quantitative (e.g., frequency, correlation, and multiple regression) and qualitative (e.g., thematic analysis) methods. The initial findings include that almost all participants use technology and English every day, and that they mainly use English for academic purposes while technology is for both social and educational purposes. In addition, most of them have a higher confidence in their technology abilities than English ones, and they believe that knowing English benefits their learning of technology because new technology tools are usually designed in English.

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Chien, Yung-Hui."Pre-service teachers' perception and use of technology and English in the 21st century" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the 55th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Fairmont Le Reine Elizabeth, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Apr 30, 2011<Not Available>. 2014-11-26 <http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p486287_index.html>

APA Citation:

Chien, Y. , 2011-04-30"Pre-service teachers' perception and use of technology and English in the 21st century" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the 55th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Fairmont Le Reine Elizabeth, Montreal, Quebec, Canada<Not Available>. 2014-11-26 from http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p486287_index.html

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished ManuscriptReview Method: Peer ReviewedAbstract: Situated in the current context of globalization featuring the importance of technology and English literacies worldwide, this study aims to understand the ways pre-service teachers in the non-English-speaking country of Taiwan use technology and English in their daily lives. The global diffusion of technology and English has made these two tools essential for full social participation in the 21st century. However, the new generation of pre-service teachers, who grew up with new technological development and compulsory English learning in school, may nevertheless lack sufficient abilities to use technology and English for purposes meaningful to them due to the lack of relevant opportunities. From a sociocultural perspective which views human activities inseparable from their surrounding social contexts, this study focuses on what one does with technology and English rather than what digital and English properties that one has as prior research did.

This study employs questionnaire (regarding pre-service teachers’ demographic information, views about technology and English, and self-assessment of digital and English abilities), web logs (recording their daily use of technology and English), and interviews (about their perception about technology and English) to explore the digital and English experience among senior undergraduate students from five teacher education programs in an university in Taiwan. The collected data are analyzed using both quantitative (e.g., frequency, correlation, and multiple regression) and qualitative (e.g., thematic analysis) methods. The initial findings include that almost all participants use technology and English every day, and that they mainly use English for academic purposes while technology is for both social and educational purposes. In addition, most of them have a higher confidence in their technology abilities than English ones, and they believe that knowing English benefits their learning of technology because new technology tools are usually designed in English.